Caught in action

Lately we've been finding unlikely things lying around the apartment... a passport here, an ID there, etc. For awhile I was a little puzzled as to how these things got out of the higher drawers... and one day we caught the girl pushing her chair to the metal rack shelves and digging into our drawers. time we go higher or get something that locks.

In love with Malaysian food

M chomping down beehoon goreng at home and naan with mutton curry at an Indian restaurant. She's definitely Malaysian!

She's also loving Bollywood music!

Is this stock making $?

M takes an interest in the IBM annual stockholders' report. She sometimes likes to grab the stuff that we are reading and pretends to read it to herself, aloud ("uummmm aaaahhhh red yellow shoo shoo hai..." etc etc).

Shooooooooo!

That's M's word for the slide, currently her favorite at the park.

Back in the park

The days are warming up and M spends most of her days out at the park. We've been doing so much... I've got so much to update but so little time so here's a recent mosaic of M in the park behind our apartment just to keep the blog current. She's so familiar with it now she can get a job there as the park tour guide.

The royal dora-yaki

Last month M's baaba (Japanese for grandmother) was honored by the emperor of Japan for her long-service with the family judiciary in the prefecture of Aichi.

At the event, among other things, she received a bag of goodies -- kinda like the goody bag for Oscar winners -- which included this typical Japanese pancake with red bean paste stuffing (known as dora-yaki, because the cartoon character Doraemon likes eating it) that atypically bore the imperial seal of Japan. While the dora-yaki is sold almost everywhere in Japan, one with the imperial seal doesn't come by very often unless you belong to the royal family (or are good friends with the royal baker?).

Thought I'd take a photo of it before I chomped it down.

A very big Pooh

M shrieked with delight and threw herself at this gigantic plush Winnie the Pooh at the Disney store. I can't remember exactly how much the price tag said it was but I do remember thinking who would buy a stuff toy for over USD500!

By the way, the Disney merchandise stores in Tokyo ring up the highest revenues and profits amongst the Disney stores around the world, including those in California and Florida. It's a very Japanese culture to buy souveniors for themselves and everyone they leave at home when they go for vacations... that's probably why. That and also the fact that they are suckers for Disney characters. When grown Japanese women scream with delight in Disneyland, you would think they had just seen Brad Pitt or someone equally good-looking, but no, it's that famous mouse character walking around the park.

Potential shutterbug

M explores that black box that daddy and mommy has been sticking into her face since the day she was born.

Daddy finally allows M her first attempt at taking photos with his precious camera. Not bad considering the Nikon D70 weighs about a ton! Well, not really a ton but weighing about 680 grams in an era when cameras are competing to reach feather-weight does put it in the heavy category among the range of consumer digital cameras.

It's a great camera though and has taken most of these beautiful pictures that are being posted on the blog (in addition to the 4000+ photos of M alone!).

More bogeying

What happens when you give her some upbeat music and a full-length mirror?


M stomping to music played in a clothing store called Comme Ca Ism in Ikspiari, the shopping mall outside of Disneyland, where we were looking for a hat she will like.

Liking the limelight

M steals daddy's camera cleaning pump, uses it as a microphone and croons away... We're not sure from where she learned how to sing into a mike. She's never been to a karaoke and we've never done this. From watching TV perhaps?